Expériences de traduction ...
Blog de Michel Politis, Professeur au Département de Langues Étrangères, de Traduction et d'Interprétation de l'Université ionienne (Corfou - Grèce)

Κυριακή 19 Φεβρουαρίου 2012

Προκήρυξη: 2 θέσεις ερευνητών (Πρόγραμμα "Language, Communication and Cognition" )


For the Tilburg Center for Cognition and Communication (TiCC) research program "Language, Communication and Cognition" (LCC), we are looking for two new, enthusiastic and competent PhD colleagues.

If you are interested in one of these positions, you will need to identify a potential research topic related to one of the research themes of the LCC program. Current themes include:


- Social media and interpersonal communication.

- Professional communication (medical, business, etc.).

- Alignment and adaptation in communication.

- Social exclusion and other social aspects of interaction.

- Emotion and speech.

- Language acquisition and learning.

- Multimodality and communication.

- Language and speech production.

- Visual communication (diagrams, metaphors, etc.).

- Gesture and other forms of non-verbal behavior


For the positions we seek candidates with a background in a relevant discipline, including Psycholinguistics, Communication & Information Sciences, Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Psychology or some related area, with experience in doing experiments and analyzing data.

The PhD candidates have a good (research) master degree in one of the aforementioned areas, a strong interest in doing research, excellent writing skills and a good command of English. Developing and defending a research plan is part of the procedure.

Tilburg University is rated among the top Dutch employers, offering excellent terms of employment. The collective labour agreement of Tilburg University applies. The selected candidates will start with a contract for one year, concluded by an evaluation. Upon a positive outcome of the first-year evaluation, the candidate will be offered an employment contract for the remaining years. Candidates with a Research Master (MPhil) will be offered a 1+2 years-contract. Master students might be offered a 1+3 years-contract. It is also possible to work 80% instead of fulltime. The PhD candidates will be ranked in the Dutch university job ranking system (UFO) as a PhD-student (promovendus) with a starting salary of € 2.042,-- gross per month in the first year, up to € 2.612,-- in the fourth year (amounts fulltime). The selected candidate is expected to have written a PhD thesis by the end of the contract (which may be based on articles).

Research in the Department of Communication and Information Sciences is located in the Tilburg Center for Cognition and Communication (TiCC). TiCC consists of two research programs: Language, Communication and Cognition (LCC) and Creative Computing (CC). There is a strong emphasis on experimental research and interdisciplinary cooperation. More information about the research programs can be found athttp://www.tilburguniversity.edu/research/institutes-and-research-groups/ticc/. There is a strong emphasis on experimental work and interdisciplinary cooperation. The department DCI is responsible for a flourishing academic programme Communication and Information Sciences (CIW), that annually attracts about 120 Bachelor students, 130 Pre-master and 200 Master students. The department is also co-responsible for the Research Master Language and Communication. More information about the DCI department can be found at www.tilburguniversity.nl/faculties/humanities/dci/.


For more information on the positions, please contact one of LCC program leaders prof.dr. Emiel Krahmer (E.J.Krahmer@uvt.nl, +311346630700) or prof.dr. Marc Swerts (M.G.J.Swerts@uvt.nl, +31134662922).

Applications should include.


- a cover letter.

- a Curriculum Vitae.

- a 2-page research proposal on a selected theme, plus names of potential supervisor and promotor.

- names of two references.

The only way to apply is via the online link at the bottom of this vacancy: "apply direct". If you receive this vacancy via eg. E-mail, please look at the vacancy located at: http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/about-tilburg-university/working-at/wp/. Applications should be sent before the application deadline of March 24, 2012. Interviews are expected to be held in April 2012. Starting dates are flexible, so applicants who expect to graduate in the summer of 2012 are also invited to apply.

Δευτέρα 13 Φεβρουαρίου 2012

"Passeurs de mots, passeurs d'idées". Ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον βίντεο για τη μετάφραση και τη διερμηνεία.


Expolangues 2012
Παρίσι
 
Συζήτηση στην οποία μετέχουν οι Marco Benedetti (Γενική Διεύθυνση Διερμηνείας Ευρωπαϊκής Επιτροπής), Sarah Bordes (AIIC-ISIT), Marie Mériaud-Brischoux (ISIT), Didier Ruiller (translator) και Dominique Laresche (TV5monde).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6Mbarn2PJNY








Δευτέρα 6 Φεβρουαρίου 2012

III International Conference Translating Voices, Translating Regions

The Translating Cultures Group of the Institute of Advanced Studies of Durham University is pleased to announce the III International conference Translating Voices, Translating Regions.

Opening Workshop, 9 March 2012

Translation as a Process: translators and cultural change

Invited speakers
Lawrence Venuti, Temple University, USA
Victoria Moul, King’s College London, UK
Astrid Guillaume, Université de la Sorbonne, Paris, France
Dario Brancato, Concordia University, Canada

Conference, 10-11 March 2012

Translators as Mediators: Trading local cultures and languages

Keynote speakers
Natalie Zemon Davis, Toronto University, Canada [Durham General Lectures Series]
David Katan, Università del Salento, Italy
Isabella Lazzarini, Università del Molise, Italy

Venue:       Joachim Room, St Hild and St Bede College, Durham University, Durham, UK
Dates:        9.03.2012 – 11.03.2012
Times:       10:00-17:00

The third International conference aims to address questions around the role of translators as mediators of local cultures over the centuries, following consistently and in many ways completing the work initiated by the first two of the series (2005 and 2007), where new approaches to the debate on translation of regionalised languages were discussed. The conference intends to focus on the particularly elusive figure of the translator, following its status, development and perception from the Middle Ages to the early 17th century. The translator shows a complex and multifaceted nature, both in terms of education and background that deserves thorough scrutiny.
          The conference intends to bring together experts studying those literary translators that were used for socio-political purposes, either to create voices of discontent or to support the official powers, while trading their local regions or patrons against hegemonic or dominant cultures. As elusive as the figures of commercial, political, and diplomatic translators and interpreters can be, nonetheless they often gave a voice and a scope to the politics and projects of their regions. Their social role and positions deserve greater attention and new research methods that cross-fertilize approaches beyond disciplinary boundaries.
          The importance of the historical context in which translators operated in the past would reveal essential clues to the complex social status of translators and interpreters over the centuries, by shedding light on their functions and the often ambivalent and ambiguous ways in which they were perceived. The themes aim at bringing together researchers and scholars interested in discussing the role of translators as cultural diplomats.
          The organisers welcome proposals exploring the life of individuals, guilds, associations, schools, or groups of translators or interpreters, as well as approaches that intend to identify a typology of translators and interpreters in diplomatic settings. The conference aims to address these issues from a range of historical, pragmatic, and theoretical perspectives, and welcomes proposals for papers of the duration of 30 minutes; 10 minutes will be added for discussion.

Papers should engage with the following themes:

Translators as mediators of lingua-cultures

Accessibility: negotiating political ideas between cultures and epochs
Availability: trading ideas, technologies, and commercial goods in areas of conflict (the Mediterranean, East and West, etc)
Ideological choices of strategies: censorship in its various forms
The education and background of the multilingual cultural mediators

Translators as diplomats

Ideological choices: translating for whom? Translating what? Selective processes of translation
Sociological impact: background, profile, social status of translators
Lingua franca (or linguae francae) and translators: the mediums of the mediators

Traders and religious men as translators of cultures

Use of local vernacular for local trades outside the dominant languages
Use of local vernacular for international trades against international languages and lingua franca
Analysis of translators who worked on essential communication for commercial purposes and suddenly become major players in political disputes
Analysis of travelling religious men who acted as translators

Papers will be accepted in English and French. The convenors are Dr Federico M. Federici and Dr Dario Tessicini of Durham University, UK. A Scientific Committee will be involved in the selection of the papers for the conference. To submit a paper to the conference, please email Dr Federici, f.m.federici@durham.ac.uk, providing:

- A 250-word abstract
- 6 keywords
- Professional affiliation
- Email address
- 150 words of bio-notes

The conference convenors will put together a book proposal to Cambridge University Press for an edited volume collecting the conference papers from spring 2012. The edited volume will be peer-reviewed and selected papers for inclusion will be expanded into fully-fledged 9,000-10,000-word chapters discussing the topics presented at the conference.

Registration fee: £50 GBP. Registration fees will be payable by cheque (in pounds) and credit card.
NEW: a 50%-discounted registration fee is now available to MA and PhD students to attend the conference without delivering a paper. £25 GBP.
To register click here.


Deadlines

30 December 2011: Abstracts
15 January 2012: Notification of acceptance
18 January 2012: Provisional programme online
20 January 2012: Registration opens
1 February 2012: Confirmed programme
5 March 2012: Registration closes

1 June 2012: Draft of article from conference paper
30 July 2012: Feedback on article
10 September 2012: Submission of revised articles



Πέμπτη 2 Φεβρουαρίου 2012

Recrutement de traducteurs à l'ONU


Le Département de l’Assemblée générale et de la gestion des conférences a le plaisir de présenter, en collaboration avec la Section des examens et des tests du Bureau de la gestion des ressources humaines, le calendrier des concours de recrutement de personnel linguistique qui se tiendront en 2012.
Outre des concours de recrutement de traducteurs, interprètes, éditeurs, rédacteurs de procès verbaux et correcteurs d’épreuves travaillant dans les six langues officielles de l’Organisation, il sera organisé un concours de recrutement de traducteurs de langue allemande. Des listes de lauréats seront établies environ six mois après chaque concours et les personnes inscrites sur ces listes pourront se voir offrir des engagements de carrière, tant au Siège, à New York, que dans les autres centres de conférence et les commissions régionales. Les concours sont ouverts à tous les candidats qualifiés qui remplissent les conditions voulues on trouvera des précisions à ce sujet, ainsi que les dates limites d'inscription, sur le site des carrières linguistiques de l'ONU. La liste des concours prévus figure ci-dessous.
1. Préparateurs de copie, correcteurs d’épreuves et éditeurs de langue arabe : 30 janvier 2012
2. Rédacteurs de procès verbaux de langue arabe : 31 janvier 2012
3. Interprètes de langue arabe : 1er-2 février 2012
4. Éditeurs et traducteurs-rédacteurs de comptes rendus analytiques de langue française (concours commun) : 27 juin 2012
5. Traducteurs-rédacteurs de comptes rendus analytiques de langue anglaise : 11 juillet 2012
6. Éditeurs de langue anglaise : 12 juillet 2012
7. Traducteurs de langue allemande : 18 juillet 2012
8. Rédacteurs de procès verbaux de langue russe : 29 août 2012
9. Interprètes de langue russe : 30 août 2012
10. Traducteurs de langue espagnole : 17 septembre 2012
11. Rédacteurs de procès verbaux de langue espagnole : 18 septembre 2012
En outre, les concours suivants, dont les préparatifs commenceront à la fin de 2012, se tiendront en 2013 aux dates indiquées.
12. Éditeurs et traducteurs de langue arabe (concours commun) : 13 mars 2013
13. Interprètes de langue anglaise : 10 avril 2013
14. Interprètes de langue française : 17 avril 2013
15. Interprètes de langue espagnole : 24 avril 2013
A l’avenir, des concours de recrutement d’interprètes, de traducteurs, d’éditeurs, de rédacteurs de procès-verbaux, de terminologues, d’assistants aux références, de préparateurs de copie et de correcteurs d’épreuves seront organisés environ tous les deux ans, en fonction des besoins.
Le Bureau de la gestion des ressources humaines a mis au point un nouvel outil qui doit permettre aux chefs des services linguistiques de mieux gérer les listes de lauréats auxquels pourront être offerts des engagements de carrière. Grâce à la base de donnée interactive à laquelle donne accès MyHROnline, les candidats pourront mettre à jour leur notice personnelle et les responsables des services linguistiques des centres de conférence et des commissions régionales pourront suivre la situation de chaque candidat en attente de recrutement et partager des renseignements à ce sujet.

Muriel Vabre-Fowles
Service français de traduction
Organisation des Nations Unies
AB-0704, New York NY 10017
tel: 212 963-6740 mel: vabre@un.org
Publié : jeudi 12 janvier 2012, New York | Auteur : Département de l'Assemblée générale et de la gestion des conférences

Διεθνές συνέδριο: Colloque international pluridisciplinaire Reims 2012 InterCompréhension et Analogie

APPEL A COMMUNICATION - REPORT DE DATE LIMITE DE SOUMISSION 
Colloque international pluridisciplinaire Reims 2012 InterCompréhension et Analogie
Date limite de soumission : 7 février 2012

Le colloque propose de réunir des acteurs internationaux de diverses disciplines qui contribueront à l’étude des relations entre intercompréhension et analogie. Il développera les trois axes suivants :

- Axe 1 – InterCompréhension et analogie : Interprétation/traduction
- Axe 2 – InterCompréhension et analogie : approximation, sous-détermination et récupération d’informations
- Axe 3 - InterCompréhension et analogie : formation et apprentissage


Pour plus de précisions, consulter l’appel à communication détaillé :
http://logatome.eu/AAC-I&AFR.pdf ou http://logatome.eu/AAC-I&AEN.pdf

Informations générales
Organisateurs :     Eric Castagne (CIRLEP EA 4299 - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne)
                                 Philippe Monneret (GReLiSC EA 4178 CPTC - Université de Bourgogne)

Comité scientifique : Samir Bajric (Université de Paris IV), Fionn Bennett (URCA), Cécile Brion (URCA), Françoise Canon-Roger  (URCA), Eric Castagne (URCA), Mihaï Dat (UB), Emilia Hilgert (URCA), Philippe Monneret (UB), Luca Nobile (UB), Sergeï Tchougounnikov (UB), Jean-Emmanuel Tyvaert (URCA), Thomas Verjans (UB).

Lieu du colloque :  Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne - UFR Lettres et Sciences Humaines – Amphi bâtiment Recherche - 57 rue Pierre Taittinger – F 51100 Reims

Langues du colloque : français - anglais

Calendrier : 17 octobre 2011 - Ouverture de l’appel à communication
                      07 février 2012 - Date limite de soumission
                      20 février 2012 - Notification d’acceptation des propositions soumises
                      12 mars 2012 - Date limite d’inscription des auteurs

Modalités des propositions :  les résumés en français ou en anglais (300 mots maximum) seront présentés dans la fiche-résumé (à télécharger sur http://logatome.eu/PropositionComI&A2012.doc) et envoyés au plus tard le 3 janvier 2012 à colloque2012@logatome.eu

Publication des actes :   une sélection d'articles sera publiée par le CIRLEP et le GReLiSC aux EPURE dans la collection ICE.

Droits d’inscription :    100 Eur (50 Eur pour les étudiants) - Les droits d'inscription demandés prennent en compte la prise en charge administrative, 2 déjeuners (jeudi et vendredi), 2 cocktails (vendredi soir et samedi midi), ainsi que des services divers dont les pauses café.

Contact scientifique : Eric Castagne
Contact administratif : Patricia Oudinet

Διεθνές συνέδριο : Cognition, numérique et nouvelles littératies à l'ère de la mondialisation et du plurilinguisme Colloque plurisciplinaire , 27 et 28 mars 2012

APPEL A COMMUNICATION

Cognition, numérique et nouvelles littératies à l'ère de la mondialisation et du plurilinguisme
Colloque plurisciplinaire , 27 et 28 mars 2012
Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, porte de la Villette, 30, Avenue Corentin Cariou, 75019 Paris

Date limite: 27 février 2012


Ce colloque plurisdiciplinaire est l'occasion de faire le point sur des recherches conduites, dans le domaine de l’apprentissage des nouvelles littératies (lecture, compréhension, production d’écrits et construction des connaissances en Français Langue Maternelle (FLM), Langue Étrangère (FLE), Langue d’Enseignement (FLE) ou Seconde (FLS)) et sur les usages et les apports des outils numériques à l’apprentissage/enseignement. À cette fin, nous souhaitons des contributions qui permettent de mettre en synergie les recherches de différentes disciplines, sciences de la cognition, sciences du langage, sciences de l’information, sciences de l’éducation, didactique, informatique. L'objectif est de contribuer à favoriser la constitution de réseaux de recherche interdisciplinaire dans le domaine des apprentissages langagiers, avec ou sans l'utilisation des technologies numériques, qui constituent aussi l'équipement de la classe du futur.

Site: http://cognition-litteraties-numerique.creteil.iufm.fr/

Les propositions de communication sont à adresser à  maria.vilette@u-pec.fr et genevieve.marouby@u-pec.fr avant le le 27 février 2012
Le formulaire de l'appel est téléchargeable à:  http://www.creteil.iufm.fr/fileadmin/documents/evenements/Colloque_cognition/Appel_a_communication.doc

Un colloque organisé par l'UPEC (Université Paris-Est Créteil et IUFM de l'académie de Créteil), Universcience (Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie et Palais de la découverte) et le LUTIN (Laboratoire des Usages en Technologies d'Information Numérique).

CALL FOR PAPERS: Translation Techniques in the Asiatic Cultures

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS
Translation Techniques in the Asiatic Cultures 
Chair: Artemij Keidan (University of Rome "La Sapienza")

Panel description

General premise

Modern studies on language (both in linguistics and in philosophy) made clear that in the human communication the linguistic expressions proper are only a constituent part of a more complex and manyfold process. Not everything that the hearers of a message understand is actually uttered by the speakers. A very big amount of information is left unsaid. In order to understand the message, the hearer has to obtain the missing pieces of knowledge from his internal encyclopedia, or to infer the information from the circumstances of the discourse and some general assumptions shared by all the speakers.
A few authors may be mentioned, whose works are very revealing in this respect. Thus, Louis HJELMSLEV (1953) has shown the great importance of the meta-semiotic layers of the communication. Not only the semantic content (or denotation) of a message, i.e. what is said, is important and informative, but also the so-called connotation, i.e. how is said what is said, has often a big relevance in the discourse. This is what happens, for example, with poetical texts: they are bearers of additional semiotic burden represented by metrics, rhymes and the strophic structure. Indeed, the poetical features of the text are as much meaningful as the literal meaning of the words, but are located at a completely different semiotic level.
Also, the philosophy of language of Paul GRICE (1981) is worth of a mention, since this author revealed the importance for the communication of implicit knowledge that the speakers infer from the observation of the communicative process (discourse implicatures) and from some general assumptions about the human semiotic behavior (conversational maxims). With Grice's conceptual framework in mind we are able to explain how do the humans communicate so much with so few words.

Theory and practice of translation: a linguistic approach

All this is of a great relevance for the translation studies. Indeed, as is clear since long time, the most problematic issue for a translator is not to translate what is effectively said, but to transpose what is implicitly communicated though being unsaid.
Thus, when a translator deals with a text — especially if it is a poetic, religious or technical one — the content to transpose in another language is not limited to the literal meanings of the words that constitute the message. The translator is supposed to construct an expression in the target language that not only has the same literal meaning, but also the same unsaid implications and the same meta-semiotic connotations as the source text. The mastery of the translator consists in putting all these components together without weighing down the resulting message with excessive explanations and comments; indeed, the translation itself "remains perhaps the most direct form of commentary", according to D. G. Rossetti's well-known statement (see ROSSETTI 1861).
The translators of all the times have faced this problem, have often found some more or less felicitous solutions of it, and sometimes have even theorized about it. In most cases, the translators became aware of the "problem of the unsaid" in language far before the linguistic studies have reached a solution to this problem. A very known case, in such regard, is that of St. Jerome who claimed, in his treatise on the theory of translation (De optimo genere interpretandi), for the supremacy of the "sense-by-sense" translation over the "word-by-word" approach (see MARTI 1974). Not suprisingly, such an opposition is still valid also in contemporary translation studies. Thus, George Nida, one of the most known scholars of translation, speaks about formal-equivalence translations vs. functional-equivalence translations, but the opposition is basically the same as the one dealt with by Jerome (see NIDA & TABER 1982; VENUTI 2000).
Indeed, the senses to be translated are often not stated directly in the original wording and are only communicated implicitly or presupposed. Therefore, translating word-by-word would not be sufficient. Jerome simply stated the necessity of taking care of what we would call "meta-semiotic reference", "frame semantics" and "discourse implicatures" nowadays. For Jerome this is more a technique than a theory. But even in the case of G. Nida, his theoretical thinking strongly depends on his own translation practice.
The present panel is devoted to the analysis of this kind of "naïve" solutions of the "problem of unsaid", i.e. the translation techniques of ancient translators. A theoretic framework as the one explained above is supposed to be the best clue for understanding and interpreting such translation techinques.

References

  • GRICE, Paul. 1981. "Presupposition and Conversational Implicature". In: P. Cole (ed.), Radical Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, 183–198.
  • HJELMSLEV, Louis. 1953. Prolegomena to a Theory of Language. Baltimore: Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics.
  • MARTI, Heinrich. 1974. Übersetzer der Augustin-Zeit. Interpretation von Selbstzeugnissen. München: Fink.
  • NIDA, Eugene A. & Charles R. TABER. 1982. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Leiden: Brill.
  • ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel. 1861. The early italian poets from Ciullo d'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100–1200–1300) in the original metres together with Dante's Vita Nuova. London: Smith, Elder & co.
  • VENUTI, Lawrence (ed.). 2000. The Translation Studies Reader. London & New York: Routledge.

Call for papers

Papers are welcome dealing with translation techinques in Asiatic cultural context, possibly in ancient period, but even in modern times provided that the translator is unaware of the modern linguistic theories. A theoretical approach similar, or equivalent, to the one presented above should be used as a general framework.

Papers on, for instance, the following topics are welcome:

  • Religious texts: how to preserve in translation the original wording which is thought to be sacred; e.g. Bible translation from Aramaic and Hebrew to Greek, and from Greek to other languages.
  • Technical and scientific texts: how to translate a complicated terminology possibly lacking in the target language; e.g. Greek scientific and philosophical treatises translated into Syriac and Arabic.
  • Grammatical treatises: how to adapt the source grammatical device for the description of a typologically different language; e.g. Indian grammatical treatises translated into Tibetan.
  • Poetry: how to convey metrics and rhymes to a different language.

The proposed papers may treat the following historical-cultural areas, among others:

  • Ancient Mesopotamia (Sumerian, Accadian, Hittite, Hurrite).
  • Ancient India and neighbouring areas (Sanskrit, Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Tocharian, Tibetan, Dravidian languages, Indonesian languages, etc.).
  • Ancient Eastern Asia (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese).
  • Near Eastern area and Islamic cultures (Old and Middle Persian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Turkish).
  • Classical world and Christianity (Greek, Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian, Georgian, Old English, Slavic).
  • Any possible mixture of the above-mentioned cultural traditions.
  • Obviously, any other areal, cultural and cross-cultural case is also welcomed.

Important dates and further information

Deadlines

  • Potential participants should send the chairman a provisional title and a long abstract (2000 words ca.)
  • The deadline has been extended to February 14, 2012.
  • Please, include your name and affiliation and indicate "CBC2012" in the object field.
  • The admission will be communicated to the author no later than February 15, 2012.
  • The general assumptions about the Coffee Break project are to be found here.

Participation to the proceedings book

  • There is still the possibility, for those who cannot take part in the conference itself, to contribute to the conference proceedings book, which will be submitted for publication to a peer-reviewed journal or publisher.
  • A special Call for Papers will be released in such respect after the end of the conference.
  • However, we would be glad to receive paper proposals for the proceedings book since now.

Artemij KEIDAN
University of Rome "La Sapienza"
Institute of Oriental Studies
P.le Aldo Moro 5
00185 Roma
artemij.keidan@uniroma1.it

Tips for Translators: How to Use Google as a Research Tool (I)

 

Tips for Translators: How to Use Google as a Research Tool (I)

Jan 24, 2012   //   by Translations Lisko   //   In English  //  19 Comments

This article about how to use Google as a research tool was written to help you make the most of Google in your work as a translator. This is the first of two articles related to this topic; the second will be released in a week.

As a freelance translator, it is likely that you are very busy and want to save as much time possible, while doing your work without compromising its quality. In order to do this, we are providing you with some helpful tips on how to use Google as a research tool. Whether you are looking to search for the meaning of a certain acronym or technical word, or are looking up the manual of a product, listed below are some basic search operators you can utilise to help you maximise Google's usefulness as a research tool:
  • Quotation marks (“”)[“key phrase”]
    Using quotation marks before and after your search terms prompts Google to search through its database for the exact sentence as opposed to any combination of the words. For example, the search [“cartography glossary”] will yield only results with the words in that exact order.
  • Logical operator ‘or’ (OR)[keyword1 OR keyword2]
    By default, Google uses all the words typed in the search box. That said, it is necessary to use this operator if you wish results to be shown with either of the keywords you type. Note that OR must be typed in all caps: e.g. the search [“hoover manual” OR “vacuum cleaner manual”] will yield results for manuals of both Hoovers and vacuum cleaners.
  • Minus sign (-)[keyword1 -keyword2]
    This search operator can be used if you wish to eliminate results that contain a particular term. For example, the search [“computer terminology” -wikipedia] will yield results containing the phrase “computer terminology” that are not found within Wikipedia.
  • Plus sign (+)[keyword1 +keyword2]
    Using the plus sign tells Google that you want results to include all the keywords you have typed, without exception. For example, the search [glossary +spanish +legal] will yield results that contain the three keywords glossary, Spanish and legal.
  • Asterisk (*)[“keyword1 * keyword2”]
    Google recognises the asterisk or ‘wildcard’ operator as a placeholder. This comes in handy when searching for a phrase (always between quotation marks) that matches one or more words. For example, the search [“manual of * construction”] will find manuals from different types of construction—road construction, building construction, etc.
  • Tilde (~)[~keyword]
    This search operator prompts Google to return results of the specific keyword you typed along with its synonyms or alternative endings. For example, the search [architecture ~thesaurus] will yield results of architecture thesaurus and thesauri, dictionaries, glossaries, etc.
While these search operators may be tedious to use in the beginning, as you get the hang of them, it will soon become second nature to input these operators, and you will find that using them is seamless and, more importantly, convenient and helpful.




Tips for Translators: How to Use Google as a Research Tool (I)